In this article, questions previously distinguished in traditional grammars and commentaries as mainly real or rhetorical, are classified in terms of a model developed from speech act theory. Instead of classifying all non-real questions as rhetorical questions (as commentators tend to do), the model makes provision for six main and various sub-categories of non-real questions. The model is briefly summarised, followed by a systematic investigation of all the questions in 1 Corinthians 5-6. The conclusion is that the proposed model is useful for distinguishing various types of non-real questions within a scientific framework and for determining their communicative functions, thereby contributing to the translation and exegesis of the passages involved. The model could stimulate research on the role of non-real questions in all Paul's letters.